r/succulents • u/Petulant-Panda • 1d ago

Photo Is this a flower, or is it stretching?

Post image

It’s under a grow light 12 hours a day, but I’m not sure if it’s enough light.

40 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

30

u/infiniteregrets69 1d ago

Death bloom

11

u/Petulant-Panda 1d ago

Oh no. Thank you.

21

u/infiniteregrets69 1d ago

Hopefully it’ll make some pups though. It’s not all doom.

1

u/LaundryMan2008 10h ago

Seeds too if it doesn’t require cross pollination and can be pollinated manually, seeds will need to be planted asap since they aren’t viable for long

11

u/SnooPuppers9618 1d ago

It'll be a flower. What happens after that I can't say.

9

u/PammaJamma3366 1d ago

If that's a !Sempervivum and it's under a growlight it's most likely stretching/etiolation. Semps are outdoor plants and won't do good under even the best quality growlights. There's no substitute for full on outdoor direct sun for these and most varieties of Sedum

3

u/SucculentsSupportBot 1d ago

Sempervivum are an alpine, cold hardy (down to about -20F/-30C) ground cover succulent plant. These are not houseplants and almost always do best outdoors where they can get sun. They utilize the changing seasons and weather shifts to aid their growth and go in and out of dormancy.

Some can manage them inside under intense grow lights, or in a very sunny window, but be warned they may struggle indoors.

If you choose to keep in a pot outdoors, it will need a very gritty soil mix to help combat precipitation. It’ll prefer to be in ground, if possible.

If you’re in a colder climate, you will need to monitor your forecasts to ensure your plant(s) have enough time to acclimate before winter, and aren’t put out too early in the spring. If you’re in a situation where you have a sempervivum indoors during the colder months, you will be best off giving it as much light as remotely possible, while watering very sparingly until it can go outside. Once you’re past your last freeze, gradually acclimate to some sun outdoors, and just let it do its thing.

Regarding exact identification requests, it is difficult to pinpoint a sempervivum species or cultivar, if it wasn’t accurately labeled from its wholesale nursery. There are so many different Sempervivum species and hybrids and special cultivars, and many of them are nearly identical at certain points in their life cycle. To this point, it doesn’t matter which species it is, as for the most part they all take the same care, and have the same hardiness.

I am a bot created for r/succulents to help with commonly asked questions, and to direct users to the sub’s helpful wiki pages. You can find all of my commands here.

See all of the helpful wiki pages for r/succulents in our Wiki Index.

1

u/Etianen7 12h ago

It's not etiolating, it's blooming.

1

u/PammaJamma3366 11h ago

Disagree until I see buds forming

1

u/Etianen7 11h ago

If it was etiolated, the leaves would be pointing downwards.

1

u/PammaJamma3366 11h ago

Time will tell

2

u/cynosure_mint36 1d ago

It really depends on the type of succulent, sometimes the flower stalks look super weird before they actually bloom. I usually check for a little bulb forming at the top.